


The True Meaning of Friendship

by ellorgast



Series: Monster Socks! [10]
Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-06
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-24 09:53:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2577254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellorgast/pseuds/ellorgast
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mamoru spends Christmas in Canada, and suffers for it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I always mean to write Christmas fic, but with the crushing pressure of Christmas itself, I never get to it. So I wrote a Boxing Day fic to make up for missing Christmas.

There was friendship, and then there was sitting in a lawn chair outside of Future Shop at 2:00 on the morning after Christmas, toes painfully numb with cold because nobody ever told you that your sleek Japanese running shoes were unfit for three feet of snow and minus fifteen degree weather. Mamoru was not even sure there was a name for that. If there was, Neil had probably invented it.

The rest of him was sweating, since he had hunkered down into his winter coat (which was also light and Japanese and useless), which was under another winter coat he had borrowed from Neil's brother, which was under a sleeping bag. Under that, his gloved hands (another borrowed item) clutched a steaming mug of coffee, heavily spiked with Bailey's, which Neil occasionally topped up with a thermos. On his head, he was wearing something they all called a toque with a pompom on the top, which, naturally, did not belong to him either.

He was not sure whether to be relieved that they were not the first ones there--and therefore not the most crazy--or mortified to learn that some of the others in line before them had been there since that morning. "We do it every year," the man cackled. "Open presents, eat breakfast, and come straight here."

He began to suspect that Jaden had been right all along in suggesting that insanity was a Canadian thing.

Technically speaking, this was Mamoru's first Christmas of his adulthood spent with a family. He wasn't there yet with Usagi's family, and though friends had sometimes invited, he never wished to intrude. Now, though, he had four guardians who refused to entertain the thought of leaving him on his own at any point, holiday or no holiday. So when the topic of their parting ways at winter break came up, the matter became clear--he was going home with somebody, whether he wanted to or not.

He could have been lounging in sunny Auckland right now, but of course it was Neil, and not Kain, who threatened to tie him up and carry him home in his suitcase and stuff him full of food and Canadian alcohol and make him learn to skate (painful), ski (disastrous, and nearly fatal), and toboggan (since there was no skill required, only Neil got injured). He had made good on every promise, sans the tying up part, especially because there was a house full of relatives who were almost as excited about food and winter sports as he was. 

"Why are we here?" He implored, not for the first time. He looked at Natasha as he asked, because at 19, Neil's sister seemed like a reasonable person. She had the same bronzed skin as him, the same strong features, the same brown eyes. But where Neil had chocolate-colored curls, the rest of his family, save his brother, had sleek, glossy hair the color of dark coffee. Just as they all had the name Wright while Neil and Ben went around calling themselves Dubois. Every one of them still thought that strapping your feet to slippery little bits of wood and hurtling down a mountain was a good idea, so clearly the crazy was still shared.

Natasha only smiled over her own mug, as Neil leaned forward and grinned. "I told you. To get me an Xbox."

"Is an Xbox worth freezing all night for?"

Neil's hat was not called a toque. On account of the silly earflaps. Mamoru was unclear on what other embellishments were allowed, if the ridiculous pompom flopping around on his head did not change the name, but apparently these things were clear cut to everyone else. "For 70 bucks off? We should've been here sooner. But then we would have missed turkey and, well, it's turkey."

Mamoru had to admit that he had a point, there. Hours later, he still felt almost too stuffed to move, and the meal had been like heaven on a plate. He had always wondered at the hype on all those American movies, and now he knew. The most wonderful thing in the world was stuffing smothered in turkey gravy. "But you said you did this last year?"

"Yeah. Mom needed a Blu-ray."

"And the year before that?"

Neil looked to his sister. "Ben wanted a PSP," she said helpfully.

"So you've done this..."

"Pretty much every year," Neil replied, sipping at his spiked coffee. "It's kind of tradition now. Although a lot of stores are turning it into weaksauce Boxing Week sales. Pussies."

"So, you could... go tomorrow?"

"Where's the fun in that?"

"So far, your definition of fun has been stretching its limits this trip."

"You need to expand your definition, bro."

Around 5 a.m. Mamoru could no longer feel his feet, his back ached, his legs were stiff but he refused to leave the warmth of his sleeping bag, and he kept nodding off, only to jolt uncomfortably awake again. A text arrived at his phone from the other side of the world. "How's the Boxing Day lineup?"

Carefully, he adjusted the sleeping bag so that he could use his hands to text without losing too much warmth. "Cold. And boring. How is NZ?"

"Hot. And boring. Be glad you're not here." Mamoru tried to imagine a situation more boring than sitting outside of a Future Shop at 5:00 in the morning. But then, he rarely heard Kain complain of boredom, so all of New Zealand must have hit maximum boredom capacity.

Just then, he was shaken out of his stupor by a phenomenon that seemed to have happened all at once: Neil was suddenly leading the rest of the line, which had now grown significantly in numbers, in a rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas." Not necessarily with all the right words.

"Neil's making everyone sing," he grumpily texted Kain. "I don't know what to do about that."

He could practically hear Kain's dry response in his head. "What you do, is you sing along."

No, friendship wasn't the appropriate word for what was going on tonight. "Lunacy" was surely a better description.


	2. Too Much Fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one-shot followed up so nicely to the other one that I thought they would work better as chapters of a single story.

Kain entered the door smelling like winter air and looking as freshly pressed as a business executive on a Monday morning, despite having just spent 18 hours confined to a tiny airplane seat, breathing recycled air. Mamoru had three days to recover from his much shorter flight, yet he was the one feeling miserable and blinking foggily from beneath a blanket. A hand went to his forehead, radiating cold on his burning skin. "Too much time playing in the snow?"

"Neil is crazy and Canada's cold and I'm going to be cold forever."

"You're complaining. His family must have done you good."

"I'm cold and my head hurts."

A ghost of a smirk appeared on Kain's lips. "You're getting good at this. You also have a fever. What else did he make you do, besides sit all night outside an electronics store and eat a lot of food?"

Mamoru closed his eyes, recounting the experience. "He made me go skiing. I spent most of my time on my back in the snow. I can't skate, either."

He opened his eyes in time to see Kain surveying the room, which was uncharacteristically cluttered with a half-unpacked suitcase and unlaundered clothes. Mamoru had made a token effort at emptying it two days ago before curling back up under several blankets. He felt that the neat freak in Kain was secretly judging him for this laziness. "Sounds like he tortured you with all sorts of fun. Was his family nice to you?"

"They gave me presents and they don't even know me. They talk as much as Neil. The dog kept climbing on me. Stop looking so amused."

Kain's expression was almost entirely neutral. "I'm not."

"You're mocking me in your head. Can I come with you next Christmas?"

"You don't really want to watch my dad and me stare awkwardly at each other for a week, do you?"

"You could take me on your dad's boat. And not make me do anything in the snow."

"Or I could make you bungee jump off the Auckland Bridge."

"At least I'd be warm."

Kain was not just inspecting the mess. He picked up an empty glass from the nightstand. "Are you staying hydrated?"

"Mmh?" Mamoru was staring blearily somewhere to the left of him.

"Okay. I'm making you soup and then you're going to take something to get your temperature down."

"I don't wanna eat anymore."

"It's just soup."

"No. There's always a plate of cookies and some pie hidden at the end."

"I'm not Neil's mother. And if you don't want to eat something, you give it to Neil. I thought you knew that trick."

"Neil's mom's smarter. She makes more than even Neil can eat."

"That poor woman. Wait here while I get you some water."

His prince made a vague noise of assent while Kain left the room. In the kitchen, Neil was devouring sugar cookies in the shape of angels. His mother really must have made massive quantities of food if there was still some left over. "Sounds like you had a fun Christmas."

"Hell yeah. The mountains were good to me this year. I think Mamoru liked it too."

"Sounds to me like he spent most of his time terrified."

"Well, it was a good kind of terror."

"I think he also has the flu. He's running a high fever."

Neil looked at him skeptically as he bit off an angel wing. "How can you tell? I mean, your core temperature is somewhere below zero, so I think your perspective's skewed."

"You just don't want to admit that he may have caught something in your country."

"It couldn't have been there. Must have been those filthy American airports." He wiped colored sugar on his shirt. "So he's coming back with me next year, right?"

"Of course. Anything that can get him talking that much must be doing something right."


End file.
